Blood, Sweat and Tears
by MadFairy
Summary: Those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. A story about two women struggling for survival and victory when hope is almost lost: Jill Volkov and Anne Grimm are two unlikely women, who have been formed by their past an continue to walk the path destined for them. Warning: Major spoilers! OC integral part of the story!
1. Chapter 1: The Adept

**Chapter 1: The Adept**

****_Now I'm not looking for absolution  
Fogiveness for the things I do  
But before you come to any conclusions  
Try walking in my shoes_

„Kahlee, I still don't like that idea of 'Biotic Strike Team', they're not ready and you know that...", she said, unable to hide her annoyance, and rubbed the back of her neck. She knew what the Alliance had in mind for her students and she hated it; _They're just children_, she thought, _they'll never be ready in time._ She waited for Kahlee Sanders to answer her, even though she already knew what she was about to say.

„The Alliance needs them, Jill, these students are the most talented biotics humanity has to offer and they could be of great help on the battlefield", Kahlee replied. Jill could hear the hesitation in her voice, clearly she wasn't sure about it either. With a sigh, Jill put her hands on the communication console.

„We'll talk about it later, Kahlee, my students will be here any minute now... " She was about to cut the transmission when Kahlee told her: „Don't forget the Alliance is sending someone to observe their progression, she's apparently part of a Biotics Special Ops gr…"

„Yeah, whatever, she could be the Easter bunny himself and I wouldn't care", Jill answered testily and cut her off, her anger getting the better of her. The training room's door opened behind her, her students coming in, being noisy as usual.

„Hey, Miss Volkov! Ready to get your ass kicked?", one of them called out and she turned to face them, smirking. „Not with your biotics I hope or you'd hurt yourself trying, Jordan!" Her students laughed in response. She didn't even look at the console when she turned it off, ignoring Kahlee's comments. She started to walk around the room at a slow pace, her hands behind her back. The students waited for her to say something, to give them directions as she usually did and she knew it. What was she supposed to tell them? No matter how hard they trained, they would never be able to hold the line against the Reapers' troops. She inhaled deeply, slipping out of her hoodie and dropping it on the floor and faced them, her hands now on her hips.

„Alright kids, today you're going to learn how to focus your biotics especially for powers such as Shockwave. Wouldn't want to make your teammate fly, would you?", she said. They chuckled but some of them frowned at her for calling them „kids". She knew most of them were already eighteen or older, but she still considered them as being children, especially in biotic terms.

„Let's start with you, Andrea, use Shockwave on me." She prepared her Barrier, waiting for her student to obey her.

„I'm not sure it's a good idea, professor Volkov, I could hurt you...", Andrea said and lowered her head, blushing as she heard some of her comrades call her „Chicken".

„Please, Andrea, even if you wanted to, you couldn't!" Jill laughed and watched Andrea relax a bit, immediately turning to the rest of her students: „And I heard you, Joseph and Bethany! Just so you know, you're next!" The two students stopped laughing, they knew she was never kidding when it came to training. Jill turned back to Andrea who was still hesitating.

„ Andrea!", she shouted, „Do you really think the enemy is going to wait for you to make up your mind before firing at you?" The girl lifted her head abruptly and flared to a bright blue as she used Shockwave on Jill, who didn't even try to move. The biotic wave crashed against the barrier uselessly, flaring up for a brief moment before it disintegrated. The students were looking at her, gaping.

„See? I didn't move because she didn't focus it on me, it was way too weak to hurt my barrier. Okay, guys! Time to split into four groups of two!" Her students nodded before starting to work. Jill walked around the room, checking on her students and observing them. She concentrated on Joseph and Bethany, making her _I'm not happy _face.

„Didn't I say something about you two going to be the next ones?", she asked them and they turned to look at her like two mice who just caught sight of an owl. She grinned and said: „I'm actually curious ab... "

She didn't have the time to finish her sentence, interrupted by a resounding noise. Her eyes wide open Jill saw the training room's wall explode; before she could understand what was happening, a bunch of soldiers stormed through the debris, shooting at everything that moved without any sign of hesitation. Even while parts of the wall were still raining down on them, she saw her students go down under the hail of bullets, unable to do anything. Some were buried under the collapsed walls, others had broken down in a pool of blood, desperately trying to crawl towards her.

Without thinking she threw up a barrier around them, tried to protect as many students as she could, but only Andrea and Joseph were still moving. Her instincts took over, as the soldiers tried to get closer she used Singularity on them, lifting them up in the air and then shot a heavy Warp at them. The created biotic explosion was powerful and ripped the soldiers off their feet and made others stumble back and into each other. She could only think of one thing: She had to reach the Communication room to warn the others about the assailants, she needed to know if anyone else had been hit! If she could reach Jack or Kahlee they could help her get Andrea and Joseph out of here. Grissom's Academy Communication room wasn't far away from the training room, but the troops would definitely make it hard. She reached for the remaining students and grabbed their arms, rushing forward and pushing them through the door towards the corridor leading to the Communication room.

„Move! I'll cover you!", she ordered and saw the fear on their faces. „I'm right behind you!", she assured them and felt her Barrier flicker under the rain of bullets exploding against it. She saw too late that they were running straight into a trap – there were already soldiers in the hallway and they were caught between the two fractions. Jill knew her students were doing their best, desperately trying to keep up their Barriers and throwing Shockwaves against the enemies, but it was not enough. As Jill took down the men positioned to their right with a Throw field, a massive mech burst through the doors of the training room and grabbed Andrea as though she were just a rag doll. Her eyes flickered over the enormous machine, fixing on the symbol painted in glaring black and yellow on one of the big plates making up its armor. She felt cold fear settle in the pit of her stomach, but did not give it time to spread through her body, and instead concentrated her biotics in an explosive biotic punch, but the mech only stumbled back. He didn't let go of Andrea. As the machine crushed the girl, her Barrier flared up one last time and then simply flickered out.

Jill was deaf to the noise around her, she couldn't hear the explosions or Andrea's pained whimpers, there was only complete silence. The mech threw the girl's corpse away as though it was trash, advancing towards them. Jill's eyes flickered to Joseph, the only one still alive now. He was standing directly in the machine's path, his fear stopping him from moving. She tried to call him but the noise around her droned out her voice. As she ran to reach him, she biotically lifted and flung away some of the soldiers closing in on her, making them crash against the walls. As her biotics pulsated along her skin, she ignored the terrible sound of snapping bones and suffocated groans. Joseph wasn't moving, unaware of what was happening around him - to Jill shouting his name, to the soldiers' bullets deflected by the Barrier she had created to protect him, he only reacted when Jill grabbed him and pushed him forcefully on the ground. She had barely enough time to create a Biotic Field above their heads, making the giant mech's claw clash against it instead of crashing on their heads. As she repelled the attack with a painful expression on her face, arms lifted to strengthen the huge barrier, she didn't notice the cracks forming just below her feet and her student. As the mech's claw was elevated again she knew it was the perfect time to run. "Now!", she shouted to Joseph, grabbing him by the arm.  
They rushed to get to the Communication room, the Barriers in which they had enveloped themselves crackling under the onslaught of bullets. Jill used Shockwaves to clear a path with Joseph using Stasis on some of the troopers. The mech was still behind them, but his slowness allowed them to enter the room with one last final sprint.

Joseph closed the door behind them and started hacking it to keep it that way. There were pearls of sweat running down the side of his face and he cast Jill a quick glance over his shoulder. "I'll take care of the door, they won't come in!", he assured her, his fingers flying over the console.

Jill hesitated but she couldn't doubt him, she didn't have the luxury to. She reached the communication console and opened it, hoping they hadn't cut the channels. "It's Jill, to anyone who can hear me: We are under heavy attack coming from Cerberus soldiers! I'm locked in the Communication room with Joseph, I don't know if we're going to make it, but if anyone gets this message, just go to the escape shuttles and save yourselves! Alarm Alliance headquarters! Don-"

She was stopped short, when suddenly the whole room started shaking and hot flames licked over her back. Fragments of the door were flying through the air, as it exploded, and in the blink of an eye, Jill saw Joseph catapulted backwards. She hadn't fully registered the gaping wound in his skull until he hit the ground and blood started to gush forth, eyes unseeing. She was moving before she was aware of it, knocking over a table and sliding in behind it, barely registering the bullet that went straight through her Barrier and buried itself in her right arm. Dizziness almost overcame her, but she pushed it back and concentrated her Biotics once again, firing attack after attack to drive the assailants back.  
She risked a peek when the shooting ceased, trying to see how many of them were left: The mech was still there, so were at least dozens of soldiers all trying to get to her. She could see Joseph's body lying on the ground, being stomped over by soldiers walking in the room and felt the snarl form on her lips. The adrenalin was pulsing in her, rushing through her veins, and all hesitation left her. She knew exactly what to do. As she jumped over the table the biotic Barrier she had pulled up started to crackle with energy and the expression of fear and doubt had left her face, her eyes were glowing an icy blue and she slowly, deliberately walked towards the hostile soldiers.

The soldiers grew panicked as their bullets glanced off her barrier, franticly trying to penetrate the Biotic Field. "Kill her!", one shouted and another one leveled a heavy assault rifle at her, "Kill her, damnit!" The blue flare around her grew more intense, spreading slowly outwards and the soldiers started to back away panicked. She suddenly screamed, releasing a crackling biotic wave that sent the soldiers scrambling back in their futile attempt to escape. As it hit them, they were lifted clean off their feet and mercilessly smashed against walls and floor alike, bones snapping and visors cracking.

In a moment, it was all over and she was the last one standing. Little pools of blood formed under the bodies of the troopers and grew bigger and bigger with each second. She could feel blood flowing from her nose and lifted her healthy arm to wipe the blood away. Her knees were shaking and she knew she had used her biotics far too much. The nosebleed would not stop and slowly the pain in her right arm registered. As she stood there, trying to recover, she was breathing heavily and reluctantly shifted her gaze to Joseph's body, twisted and burned.  
She gritted her teeth and started to walk, knowing she had no time to spare – and as she did so, she noticed a group of people running towards her in a fast pace. They had undoubtedly seen the whole display through the smashed windows of the Communication room. She quickly pushed the body of a soldier aside and picked up his heavy pistol, flinching when the sudden movement made the wound in her arm throb. In one fluid motion she leveled the gun at the first person that came into clear few and took a deep breath. She was too exhausted for another biotic attack, but she'd make them regret what they did.


	2. Chapter 2: The Spectre

**Chapter 2: The Spectre**

_Calm down and get straight  
It's in our eyes, it's how we operate  
You're true, you are._

_A little joy, a little sorrow_  
_And a little pride_  
_So we won't have to borrow._

Kaidan Alenko was by no means a man prone to curse. Quite the opposite – he prided himself with the ability to stay calm in most situations and keep his thoughts focused. Curses were not more than a waste of precious energy and even more precious time and since he was also a man that was prone to be under fire, he could not afford to lose either.

It had thus to be attributed to the bullet that got stuck somewhere in his leg armor, the biotic hum that grew louder (and angrier) by the minute somewhere not many steps behind him and probably mostly to the gun pointing at his face that he did take the time to utter a quiet "Shit". Just as a side note – the fact that they had just watched the release of a biotic wave that had killed not only one or two, but overall at least five soldiers… Well. That was not helping the tension in the air.

Shepard moved faster than he did, raising the sniper rifle like it was a part of her arm almost casually and stepping to the side, and he did not need to look at her to know she would nod ever so lightly to the right side. James followed the wordless command and moved to the other side and immediately the pistol that had been pointed at Kaidan was leveled at the tall soldier.

"Don't come any closer or I will shoot", the woman at the other end of the rifle said in a dangerously low voice. She wore no armor and blood was trickling from her nose – a biotic backlash if he had ever seen one. He could feel her biotics, angry and surging around her, and felt his own skin crawling with the familiar feeling. A quick scan confirmed his first thought that she was one of the teachers of Grissom Academy – there was no insignia of Cerberus to be seen anywhere and she looked like she had been in a fight. Her brunette hair had at some point been pulled up to a ponytail, but at the moment it looked rather disheveled and loose. Despite the blood on her clothes and boots and the way she was pressing one arm against her chest (fractured rib or broken arm?), she had her hazel eyes trained on Shepard, while she was pointing the pistol at James, unwavering.

The woman was shaking slightly, almost not noticeable, but had her feet firmly planted on the floor. Her eyes wandered between the three of them, reluctant to let anybody out of her immediate sight, as though she expected them to shoot her the very next moment.

Shepard took another careful step, slow and without any emotion on her face. Immediately the teacher flared, blue biotic currents dancing around her – it was a desperate measure, because her nosebleed intensified and she stumbled slightly. If she kept going, she would pass out – or worse, overheat her amp.

Kaidan lowered his rifle and slowly extended his arms outwards as a sign of surrender that did not go unnoticed by Shepard, who threw him a quick glance he could not quite interpret.

"We are Alliance", Shepard said in her unmistakable even voice, calm and quiet and reassuring. James moved just a tiny step to be right next to her and the teacher's hand twitched, gun raised to aim at his forehead. It was a useless maneuver, because despite the fact that they had taken off their helmets, their shields were at full capacity and would block any bullet coming their way.

"I said don't move", the woman repeated tensely, but Kaidan could feel the biotic forces dancing around her lessening and calming. He took a few steps back, arms still extended and very slowly and beckoned to Jack and her students to stop and wait at their position instead of pass through the door.

"We are Alliance, I am commander Shepard", Shepard repeated, "We were sent here to help with the evacuation and assist in any way we can." She slowly lowered her sniper rifle and nodded at James, who reluctantly let his shotgun drop to his side, not taking his eyes off the possible threat the woman represented.

The woman barked out a laughter that lacked any positive feeling, and then said: "Help? Say that to my students." Kaidan wasn't sure if she was about to finally let her arm drop and before he could so much as try to say something, Jack stalked through the doors with a snarl on her face, pushed him aside without so much as a look and gave them all a onceover.

"What's this bull….sense here?!", she demanded to know. "We have no time for one of your tea parties, Shepard! Every minute we spend here gawking around is a minute where more of those f..reaking bastards enter the station!"

James did not even have the decency to try and hide his grin, but Kaidan assumed that he should already consider it thoughtful of the soldier to not say anything right then and there about impending tea parties. However, that could also be attributed to the fact that Jack did not exactly allow much time for snide comments, because she simply moved past Shepard, grabbed the gun in the other teacher's hand and pushed it away to the side before she turned back to look at Shepard.

"Are you f…loating idiots or what? We're under attack and we're on the same side, you nut-heads. Let's get going", she barked and when her fellow teacher only reluctantly stepped back, she turned to face her. "Jill, we don't have time for this. That's Shepard, I know her. She really _is_ one of those little boy scouts, their queen, probably. Now move!"

And just like that Jack passed by them once again, waved her students to follow her and waited for Shepard to start moving again. The commander shot her one exasperated look, but then started to move forward again, putting a hand on the teacher's – no, Jill's shoulder. "We will get you out of here. Stay next to Major Alenko", she ordered and looked at him. He nodded his understanding and within moments they were on the move again.

Jill was able to keep pace, but looked quite pale and kept her arm pressed against her body. Kaidan quietly pulled an energy bar from one of his many pockets and offered it to her: "Here, take a few bites. It will not help much, but it will keep your metabolism going until we're on the ship."

She reached out hesitantly, wrapping her fingers around it and offered him a tired smile. "You might have need of that yourself in just a few minutes", she said, but he simply shook his head and gave her a reassuring smile. "I have more of those, don't worry", he assured her and looked ahead. Shepard was leading ahead and had commanded James to fall in behind as rearguard. The soldier kept looking over his shoulder to make sure they were not followed, but ever so often his gaze would land on Jill, as if he expected her to do something stupid or perhaps break down any minute now.

As Jack moved up to them, Kaidan immediately made way for her. The woman was small but had a remarkable temper and even in the few minutes he knew her he had learned that it was best not to stand in her way. "Where are the little guys?", Jack asked her colleague and Jill lowered her gaze, breaking eye contact. "Dead", she answered and Kaidan felt a pang of guilt at not arriving here faster.

"The door is blocked", Shepard suddenly announced in front of them and when he looked up, he could see her running her hand over the door-lock interface. She was pressing her lips together angrily and finally moved back to bring up a map of the academy on her omni-tool and check for alternate routes.

Kaidan walked past her and connected his omni-tool with the electronic interface of the door without even waiting for her to say anything else. "It has been hacked closed, but I can overwrite that. Just give me a minute, it won't take longer than that", he let her know and started to find a way to get through the firewall they had set up when hacking the door locked.

"Good. There is one alternate route, but it would cost us an additional 10 minutes and they could flank us easily if we had to try that one, probably already have set up an ambush. I still have no radio-contact with Sanders, but she should have the shuttle ready by now", Shepard answered him and impatiently shifted wait from one leg to the other as he worked. He could feel sweat form on his brow, less from his work on the door, but because the temperature in the academy had been climbing steadily over the last few minutes. Perhaps Cerberus had also hacked the temperature control to try and pressure them or perhaps it had been an involuntarily result from the destruction of one of the command rooms. God knew they'd not cared for what exactly their bullets and missiles hit.

The telltale clicking sound let him know that he had achieved his goal and he stepped back, rifle raised ready to shoot at sight, Shepard right beside him.

The door swooshed open and revealed a long empty corridor and the faint sound of gunshots and explosions not far from them. Shepard lead on and with a sign of her hand, James appeared next to her, readying his shotgun. "There is the auditorium behind the next door, big room with gallery up on the top. Just behind that is the shuttle Sanders has located and secured", Shepard told them and moved forward cautiously.

The noise grew louder with each step and Kaidan could feel that something heavy had landed not far from them as the floor vibrated ever so slightly beneath his feet. He could feel his biotics pulsing under his skin, growing increasingly difficult to keep bottled up and shut down like he had been ordered to by Chakwas.

"Sounds like Cerberus knows we're coming", James growled and cast a look at their leader, who stood now poised in front of the door separating them from the auditorium. "Sounds like they have a heavy mech in there", he added then and an almost feral grin appeared on his lips.

"We have to move fast. Our objective is to reach the shuttle. Jack, Jill – you and your pupils stand behind us, we will give you covering fire. Kaidan, you move with them, make sure their path is free. James and me will keep them off your backs. When we enter, you all get into cover – you move on my sign", Shepard ordered, her green eyes scanning the pupils' faces.

"Aye, aye", Kaidan and James murmured automatically, while Jack gave an impatient nod and let her biotics flare up again. Kaidan cast one last glance at Jill, who was holding her gun at the ready and looked stable enough despite her wounds for now. She had moved to the other side of the pupils and looked determined, anger obvious in the way she had her brows knitted together and the dark shine in her eyes.

"Now!", Shepard said and pressed the interface to let the door slide open. They moved immediately, diving behind benches and columns for cover, bullets zipping past their heads. Kaidan risked a peak around the column and could see Shepard cloaking and moving in to align herself for one of her perfect headshots. He was surprised by the sheer amount of troopers, Centurions and other Cerberus soldiers already congregated in this room, but once he scanned the room, he knew why.

They were not alone. Close to the door on the opposite side of the auditorium, the one they needed to reach, were two Alliance soldiers. They were covering behind a downed heavy mech and were only partially visible to them, until one of them moved to cover behind a column, throwing a Heavy Shockwave towards a patch of incoming troopers.

His gaze registered the blue insignia on their right shoulders and he blinked in surprise. "They are Biotic Ops", he shouted to Shepard, firing at a Centurion that had emerged from a hole in the wall in one corner of the room. "They are both under my command."

The two soldiers had registered them as well and their comm.-link flared alive as the one behind the heavy mech tuned into their wavelength. "Operations Chief Andrews, Special Operations Biotic Company reporting in", a male voice said in a pressed tone. The soldier moved up from behind the cover to quickly overload the shields of another Centurion that was dispatched quickly by James.

"Sitrep", Shepard ordered and took out a Nemesis that had honed in on one of the pupils. "A first group of students has been evacuated with one of our man and Lieutenant Sanders. One shuttle is ready for evacuation, Lieutenant Grimm decided to keep position until your arrival. More Cerberus troops are incoming", Andrews reported and grunted when a grenades exploded right in front of his cover, pushing it hard against him.

"We have two teachers and five pupils. We need covering fire – and draw the heavy mech away from here", Shepard said and appeared next to Kaidan, ducking into cover as her cloak dissipated. She held her hand up for Jack to see and kept ready. "Aye, aye", a female voice confirmed over their comm.-link and Kaidan readied for the sprint towards the shuttle.

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**Author's Comment: **Thank you very much for the feedback and the reviews we have gotten. :) We apologize for letting this rest for so long, but life is throwing things at us that keep us very busy. :/ We hope to be faster with updating from here on out! :)

Please feel free to let us know if you like this story so far, if there is any way to improve it and if you have any suggestions! We hope you enjoyed this chapter - more action is imminent in Chapter 3!


	3. Chapter 3: The Soldier

**Chapter 3: The Soldier**

_Another reason, another cause for me to fight  
Another fuse uncovered now, for me to light  
My dedication to all that I've sworn to protect  
I carry out my orders without a regret  
_

_My declaration embedded deep under my skin  
A permanent reminder of how it began  
No hesitation when I am commanded to strike  
You need to know that you're in for the fight of your life_

The room was buzzing with activity and James quickly reloaded his assault rifle, his back pressed flushed against the bank he had chosen as cover. He did not trust it completely to stop any and all bullets, but there were not many other options in the room.

Taking a deep breath he leaned to the side, firing off a few shots and downing a trooper that had moved closer to the pupils. He'd be damned if he even wanted to imagine what the Illusive Man wanted with those kids… And moreover, why he'd simply let all those he couldn't get be shot. Back out there it had been like a battlefield, littered with corpses. It wasn't even like they were trying so very hard to get all the pupils – it was more like they didn't want the Alliance to keep them…

James gritted his teeth and took out another Trooper, when he saw the red signs blink alive on his omni-tool, announcing that his shields were down. He moved back into cover and pulled a grenade from his belt, quickly throwing it to the far side of the room, where three troopers and a Centurion had positioned themselves and focused fire on Shepard. "Fire in the hole!", he bellowed and mentally counted the seconds until it went off, making the ground shake ever so slightly. By the time it went off his shields were back up and he leaned over the bench, finishing the Centurion and the one surviving trooper, that was trying to stagger back to cover.

He saw Shepard duck into cover next to the major and order the two other Alliance soldiers they had encountered to keep the Atlas away from them. A quick glance past the bench showed him that the heavy mech had taken up a position in the middle of the room and was readying a missile to launch. It would be nasty in this confined space – the benches were not sturdy enough to take that kind of explosion and the pupils were crowded together behind their two teachers, who tried to keep them in relative safety.

"Aye, aye", a female voice confirmed over the comm.-link and James could see Shepard lift her arms as a signal for Jack, who focused her gaze on it as her biotic flared up and a barrier engulfed her and her pupils almost immediately.

He already readied another grenade to try and stop the Atlas from launching that missile, when the female soldier all but exploded from her position. In a flash of blue crackling light she was gone from behind the column and zipped across the room in a split second, audibly ramming against the machine at full tilt. The Atlas stumbled back a step, missile going off towards the ceiling and James almost forgot himself and just stared as pieces of wall that came raining down on Cerberus troopers.

Shepard lowered her hand and dispatched a Nemesis with a clean headshot just a second after and the two teachers started to move towards the far side of the room, where the door to the shuttles was located. The major moved out of cover and ran alongside them, keeping the path clear for them so they could move fast enough.

At the same time the female soldier that had charged the Atlas barrel-rolled out of the way, only barely escaping an angry smashing motion of the heavy mech's arm, and brought up her shotgun to fire two shots at the machine. The other Alliance soldier moved out from behind cover and lifted his right hand with his omni-tool and an electric ripple ran all over the Atlas, making it stagger once more. "Shields are down!", he shouted and quickly moved to another position, from where he could keep a better overview of the battlefield.

"Good", she said with a smirk in her voice that he could hear even over the crackling of the comm.-link and in the next instant she used a bench as leverage to get on top of some sort of ornament – and then jumped on top of the Atlas, barely catching herself from sliding off the other side by holding onto a protruding piece of metal.

James picked off a Centurion and a trooper that had appeared on the gallery above them and quickly moved to the next piece of cover, so as to stay close to Shepard, who was slowly making her way to follow the pupils. When he saw that the commander was cloaking and moving further along, he himself sprinted to get into cover again further ahead, taking out two troopers that had approached the Atlas now.

Meanwhile, the woman had lifted her arm as high as she could and even out of the corner of his eyes he could see the biotic currents that were surging around her fist as she punched it down with a grunt, straight through the thick glass of the driver's cabin, and then lifted her handin one quick motion and smashed it down again to completely shatter the glass, exposing the Centurion inside. Without much ado she got hold of him and pulled the wildly flailing soldier out, tumbling to the floor together with him and they landed with a grunt.

James lifted his rifle and when he got a clean shot, he took out a trooper coming up behind them, ready to stab her with one of the electric little knifes they all had.

"Got you a ride, Andrews!", she grunted and pushed the heavy body of the Centurion off of her, emptying three rounds into him – and then kicked him once for good measure. Well… that guy was now dead for sure. And as James watcher her reload her weapon and flex her fist, he faintly thought to himself that perhaps we _was _ready for marriage after all.

He was not absolutely sure, but he thought he heard a heavy sigh from the male soldier as he ducked out of cover and sprinted towards her, firing off a high explosive plasma-round from his omni-tool. "They are closing in", he warned his comrade, who had the nerve to chuckle.

To James surprise, she did not shoot the troopers that were running towards her, she kept her position, shotgun loosely at her side. He quickly stood up and took out one that had no shields left, when her voice buzzed alive once again over comm.-link: "No, they're trying to."

When they were close enough to actually draw their little blades, she shifted her weight and then, in one fluid motion, she straightened herself up to full height, enwrapped in biotics, and then brought her fist down on the floor in one heavy punch. Her biotics exploded all over the place, making the ground shake and dropping the troopers close to her, who were unable to stay on their feet. She repeated the motion one more time and by the time James had shot the last of the surviving troopers, the other soldier had already climbed into the Atlas and had started to move it towards the shuttles, all the while firing at the newly incoming Cerberus troops on the far side of the room.

The pupils and teachers had reached the other door, which the major unlocked in a matter of moments and they passed through. Only two stray troopers had managed to move past the defensive forces up on top of the gallery and dropped down right behind them. It was a grave mistake that they would not live to regret. In one motion the two teachers turned around and flared up, anger evident on their faces. Jack biotically pulled them closer to them and they were suspended helplessly in the air, as Jill used a biotic Throw at them. There was a brief moment of pain showing on her face, but in the next instant both hostiles were taken out by the ensuing biotic explosion and both teachers moved up behind the pupils.

"They're through", the major let them know and went through the door himself, positioning himself behind the wall to give them covering fire. "Fall back!", Shepard commanded and James drew another grenade and threw it to the opening in the wall through which new Cerberus troops were pouring by now. The two Alliance soldiers slowly moved backwards and the one in the Atlas released two consecutive missiles towards the breach in the wall. That together with James' grenade gave the male soldier enough time to clamber out of the heavy mech and drops down beside his comrade, before they sprinted to meet up with Shepard.

James was the last one to go through the doors and took position on the other side, as Shepard urged the pupils to get into the Cerberus shuttle that they would use for extraction.

"Andrews, get into the cockpit", the female soldier said, this time audible even without comm.-link, but the man hesitated for a moment, obviously torn about that command. "But L.T., I don't have my pilot-license and-", he started, but moved towards the shuttle despite this.

She switched from her shotgun to a heavy pistol and did not even turn around to look at him. "Andrews, afaik you're the one who's had the most training. So either you get your butt into that pilot seat or I will try my luck with it", she said and it did indeed sound like a threat – and was probably meant as such, because all of a sudden Andrews did indeed move quite fast past the others to angle himself behind the controls.

"Please refrain", the major muttered, but did not turn around to look at his soldiers and instead lifted his arm with the omni-tool to overload the shields of a Nemesis that had taken position behind a bench.

"Can we get the door closed?", Shepard asked and appeared next to them to help buy time for the shuttle to be fired up and ready. The major took a look at the controls and interlinked his omni-tool with its interface, brows furrowed in thought. "The other side of the door was already set up to only open with a specific code – Andrews' work – so that once we can get them to close, we should have at least a little time."

At that the female soldier moved in closer and looked over the major's shoulder at the control panel. "Andrews said that the electronics are screwed up from this side. They'd need to be completely shut down for the door to zip closed when we're on this side. If I may?", she asked, almost politely. Only almost, because she looked kind of impatient and with the Atlas stomping through the wall in the other room, James got an inkling why. There was no end to those troopers. Did the Illusive Man get them with a group discount or what?

The major and Shepard moved away warily from the door control and then without a moment of hesitation, the soldier simply did what she had already done to the Atlas. She punched the interface and by extension the electronics below it with a heavy biotic punch, that sent electronic currents running over her arm and up to her shoulder. He thought he saw her fingers twitch and a slight stumble in her step as she backed off, but it could just as well have been his imagination. As James stared at the hole and the dying hologram of the interface, the door stutteringly started to move under protest and finally closed up completely.

"Alright", Shepard said after a moment in which she had regarded the other woman with an expression that James could not quite read (although he thought that "batshit crazy" might have been part of the thought process it involved), "let's get on the shuttle. I will radio Joker, I should have signal once we leave the station."

They hurried along and climbed into the shuttle, its door closing as soon as James has entered as the last one. The major made his way through them to move to the cockpit and sit down in the seat next to Andrews, so he could help the young man with the controls, while Shepard put away her sniper rifle for the moment and started to try to get contact with the Normandy.

James kept standing to the side as he put away his own weapons and cast a look at the pupils, who were all seated by now. Some had flushed faces and were bombarding Jack with questions, while one or two looked rather pale and kept quiet. Jill quietly put a hand on one's shoulder in a reassuring gesture and started to talk to the pupil in a low tone, lips carved into something that was not quite a smile.

His gaze wandered to the female soldier, who had also decided to stand and was now putting her hands on her helmet to pull it off after the environmental locks released the pressure with a hiss. She was sweating and her short blond hair stood in all directions and that together with her flushed face and the wolfish twinkle in her eyes – well, it made her look nothing short of catastrophic. Feeling his eyes on her, she turned to look at him and when noticing his slightly raised eyebrows, she simply flashed him a grin. "Too bad you never got a bomb ready when you need one, eh?", she asked and nodded into the general direction of the Cerberus troops below them.

"Didn't look like you needed one", he answered with a chuckle and she shrugged her shoulders, grin still in place.

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**Author's Comment**: Thanks to everybody who reviews and follows this story. :) We're really happy that you seem to like this fabrication of our imagination and hope that once we get it all rolling, you'll like the direction we'll take with this. We will try to keep updating without too much time in between, but with university and exams it's a bit difficult at the moment.  
Please let us know what you think of this chapter - and as always, we're open for any suggestions, constructive critisism and pretty much anything else. :3


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